Sunday, 16 April 2017

More good stuff from the ample, overflowing treasure
trove of Jack James’ ‘files’ (this is a word that means his entire basement and
back yard garage of fishing related stuff, including a collection of old
licence plates that is truly out of this world) on Saanich Inlet fishing in the
‘good ole’ days’.

Two
things this week:

Prize
Winners

This image is a bit smudgy as it came to me as a
photocopy of an almost sepia-like piece of newsprint, presumably the Times Colonist,
that endured for decades (‘60s, maybe?) and then was photocopied to give to me.
I took a digital image and did a little ‘improving’, to find the text is more readable
in the image than original. Zoom the image to find out who is who.

Here are a few: The person standing far left is Jim
Gilbert, probably the most famous of our historical fishing confederacy. Think
of politicians we now hold in esteem like John A. MacDonald or the other guy… ah
yes, George Washington. They were nation builders, sure, but not as important
as sport fishers.

Jack James is sitting on lower right with the trophy
and box of buck-tails and hootchies. The fellow sitting on the left is Kjell
Pedersen, who won the Jim Gilbert trophy for biggest fish on a drift fishing
lure, in the Stamp River, at 44 pounds. You will note that Ken Turnbull won the
grand hidden weight prize of a CP trip to Amsterdam with his wife Margaret,
for, get this, a 7.5 pound coho. Where do we sign up to win? On the far right
is Bruce Colegrave of Scot Plastics who was one of the top fishers when I cut
my teeth in the Inlet in the mid-seventies.

Ernie
Fedoruk

After Alec Merriman, Ernie wrote the fishing column
for the TC, then Rob Waters, then me for a decade. The column below, probably
from the 1970s, tells the story of how we got UV and ‘glow’ in the lures we
fish with today. I have transcribed it verbatim, including the US spellings.

Stamp
Collector Sheds Light on Lures

The fishing fraternity would be very callous if it did
not send Joan James a dozen roses…or at least a card of thanks.

She brought light into the lives of anglers because,
being a stamp collector, she introduced the awareness of ultra violet radiation
to her lure-distributing husband.

As a result, the anglers and hubby’s business all have
improved on success.

Jack James and partner Ted Packford own Radiant Lures,
a Victoria cottage industry that now dominates sales of plastic bait – the ones
commonly called hootchies and squires – to those who pursue West Coast salmon,
steelhead and trout, not to mention halibut and other groundfish.

Benefits also have spilled off to others, including
rivals in the tackle industry.

Radiant’s almost-bizarre named lures like Army Truck,
Devil’s Tail, Zapper, Clover Leaf, Peanut Butter, Polar Mist, Mint Tulip and
Fuddle Duddle may not mean a thing to the non-fishing population. But all are
well known, understood and very popular with all who fish British Columbia’s
waters.

The ‘glow’ baits have increased catching success.

Teamed with rolling flashers such as the Hot Spot or
Oki on a 36-inch leader, hootchies are designed to imitate squid, while the
squirts resemble needlefish (or sandlance) – both relished by salmon.

Lures that react to UV rays now dominate Radiant’s
stock. Interestingly, the search for titles honors the Packford and James families
as well as Jack’s former firefighting profession (Firebrand and Fire Chief).

He declined to identify the Red Dragon’s origin but
Jack admitted he has yet to name a lure after his wife.

“It will have to be special,” he suggested, “because
she is the one who twigged the industry onto the significance of UV rays.”

While others used colors that reacted to UV rays,
James is convinced “no one in the industry related its (UV) impact to
fish-catching success…as far as I know.”

Only within the past decade were sports anglers able
to catch sockeye, thanks to small pink squirts. Before then, that salmon species
almost totally ignored sport-fishing offerings.

The choicest of the salmon species was considered by
most as a fish that could only be taken by nets.

Then commercial trollers and the sporties started to
hook sockeye. The success of tiny pink lures spread.

About six years ago, Jack, working in his basement,
wondered about why the pink color worked so well on sockeye.

“Maybe it reacts to ultra violet,” suggested his wife,
and then she asked: “Do you want me to get my UV light?”

Like all stamp collectors, Joan considers a UV lamp
important to her hobby. It helps verify the authenticity of most stamps.

Stamps from most countries are edged with a color
shade that reacts to UV rays. It began in the 1960s when post offices introduced
cancelling machines. The UV edging ‘tells’ the machine when the stamp is in its
proper place for cancellation.

Joan’s light proved the pink sockeye lure was, indeed,
a color that reacted to UV. Jack made another discovery that day. He hauled out
an old pearl pink Lucky Louie plug to see if that lure reacted. It did.

James says deer hair, a favorite with those who make
flies, also reacts to UV radiation.

Ultra violet radiation, almost surely, is one reason
why some lures are hot and some are not.

*******************

Here is an image of Radiant Hootchies, including most mentioned
above. Zoom in to read the names:

Sunday, 9 April 2017

Here are some more images from the VSIAA yearbook,
1931/32, the first year they put it out. Jack James, Mr. Radiant Lures, has it
on his work desk, taped to present it to the viewer. In a previous article, I
featured a story of the exec, landing his own plane and going out fishing, and
flying back to Chicago with the evidence of Saanich Inlet’s largesse. Lansdowne
Airfield where he landed was on the present site of Lansdown Middle School, in
the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. The airfield was originally bordered by
Lansdowne Road, Richmond, Newton, and Shelbourne.

The first yearbook issue had more than 36 pages, so it
was a chunky little record. Here are some more images from the eight-page
spread I photographed. The first image is an advertisement for Plimley &
Richie, a tackle shop on View Street downtown.

FYI:
Cutty Hunk Line is both a brand name and a type of braided line. Click the link
below.

The
next image is the official Weigh Lady, with a fish that is almost as big as she
is. You will note the prayer at the end, asking God for such a large fish that
lying about it isn’t necessary.

Then
there is an ad for Harrap’s guiding service. Catch the quaint phone ‘number’:
Keating 53M. And, of course, note that going out in a suit and tie got awarded,
with, I think, seven salmon;

The
next image is for Gilbert’s guiding, with the sporting offer: No Fish – No Pay.
And for the princely sum of $1.50 per hour. And men have a better time in, as
they used to say for knickerbockers, Plus Fours.

Even
if you didn’t wear a suit, and showed up in a cap, sans Plus-Fours, you might
still catch, as Roy Thompson did, a 53 ¼ pound chinook. He won the top gold
button award for the year, beating out Ralph le Fever (can this be a real name?)
from Hollywood, with a mere 40-pounder:

Next
image: Creed’s Landing was a marina just down from Gilbert’s, deeper into
Brentwood Bay. It was the first place I got salmon smoked, in 1976. It was so
good that when we got home, we would, without removing our coats, open the glazed-one-side
brown paper, open a box of Stoned Wheat Thins, and stuff ourselves until we
couldn’t eat another bite – and that included dinner. I also had smoking done
at Gilbert’s, too, where they put the smoker in an outside closet, which smoked
away all day and whoever opened the door disappeared into the smoke. I last had
it done when lacustrine Harold, with his big floppy-legged German Shepherd, was
the resident owner some years later.

And
proving that Ralph “Boots” Le Fever was existent in 1932, the man himself and
his forty-pounder:

And
waxing poetic about Hyas Tyee, Richard L. Pocock, rhymes the Big’ Un of Brentwood
Bay, arrrgh Billy (It’s a bit blurry, but I hope you can zoom in and read it).

About Me

I won the national RODERICK HAIG- BROWN AWARD, 2016, for environmental writing, largely for this blog (www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com) that has become a global portal for the environmental damage made by Norwegian-style fish farms.
I won the Art Downs Award for 2012 for sustained and outstanding writing on environmental issues, in my case, fish farms.
The award was based on 10 columns on fish farm issues in the Times Colonist newspaper, three public submissions to the Cohen Commission on Fraser sockeye and this blog.
If you want to book me to speak, for a lecture, talk, or panel on fish farm environmental damage, contact me on this blog by leaving a message on a post.